ESCP Europe soon to launch its first TEDx conference

Johannes Bittel, ESCP Europe student (Master in Management Class of 2012), launches the first TEDx conference at a Grande École in Paris: TEDxESCP - an independently organised event in the spirit of ideas worth spreading.

The TEDxESCP conference aims to tap into the vast pool of knowledge and passion within the realm of the Grandes Écoles in Paris. The one day conference on the Paris Campus of ESCP Europe is being organized by students of ESCP Europe and will gather curious students from Parisian Grandes Écoles.

Since their inception in 1984, with the mission “Ideas worth spreading”, TED conferences have gained a high number of followers – so much so that the website, launched in 2006, now brings together a community of close to 100,000 members, totalling over 500 million views. These events have attracted hundreds of thought leaders from a variety of fields of expertise to join in and share their ideas with the world. TED has become an inspiration for a whole generation of curious young men and women.

Later on, Johannes Bittel enrolled at ESCP Europe in London, Madrid and Paris. While attending a strategy workshop with the Boston Consulting Group in Vienna, he met two other participants who both were TEDx organizers at their universities. The passion with which they described their experiences as TEDx organizers made him curious.

"I decided that this was for me," he explains. "However, I soon realised that it is not easy at all to become an organiser because if you want your event to be bigger than a hundred people you need a full licence and attend one of the two annual conferences." So Johannes Bittel applied for a license at TED writing about himself what he believes in and why he wanted to take on this responsibility.

Now, he is more determined than ever to organise his first TEDx conference at ESCP Europe’s Paris Campus. Johannes Bittel hopes this event will "unleash some of the vast knowledge and passion within the realm of the Grandes Écoles in Paris and create a community of curious young people." Mainly targeting Grandes Écoles students, the conference will be fully organised by ESCP Europe student volunteers looking to gain experience in organising a top-class conference and to meet inspirational personalities.